Summary

History of Political Thought: Summary of lectures and assigned readings of (hopt)

64 views 5 purchases

Course
History of political thought (73210026FY)

Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)

One document is a detailed summary of all the lectures in the course, while the other document is a summary of the assigned readings. I had an end-grade of 7.7 for this course. Good luck studying!

[Show more]

Last document update: 1 year ago

Preview 4 out of 85 pages

View example

Uploaded on January 31, 2023
File latest updated on January 31, 2023
Number of pages 85
Written in 2021/2022
Type Summary

hopt
assigned readings
political science
history of political thought
uva
lecture notes

Institution
Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Education
Politicologie
Course
History of political thought (73210026FY)

PoliticalScienceUvA

Member since 2 year 165 documents sold

CA$15.88

Added

Add to cart

Add to wishlist

100% satisfaction guarantee
Immediately available after payment
Both online and in PDF
No strings attached

History of Political Thought - Lecture notes

Week 1
Lecture 1:
- Who should rule?
- Plato expert rule?
- Aristotle on lotteries/sortition
- What is political theory

Who should rule?
● Some answers:
- The people (they constitute the state)
- The elderly (experienced, safe-guard tradition, risk averse)
- The king
- The elect(ed) (president/cabinet, excludes the incompetent, gives a choice to
the people)
- The party
● Expert rule or epistemocracy
- Presupposes that ruling is a craft/skill or requires knowledge (or competence)
- Let the experts rule → anti-democratic?
- Plato
Plato
● 428-347 b.c, Athens
● Mostly wrote Dialogues
- Most of which feature his teacher, Socrates, as a lead character
- Socrates was put to death by an Athenian jury for “corrupting the youth”
● He founded The Academy which lasted for 300 years
● Would be a teacher of the ruler/tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysis II

Athens
● It was a so-called direct or popular democracy
- Limited to free males (about 30.000 people) → it excluded women, children,
slaves, and foreign residents
- Met in a regular assembly (ekklēsia) → all men could participate, vote by
raising a hand, and speak freely (isegoria)
- Isegoria meant you could say almost whatever you wanted, Socrates was the
only philosopher that was put to death → but it shows there was a limit to the
free speech
- For imperant/urgent matter (war) there was the Boulē or concil, which was
composed of 500 citizens who were chosen by lot (sortition) and served for
one year → many magistrates (important civil servants) who also chosen by
lot

, - The council set the agenda for the assembly and oversaw the Athenian
bureaucracy; it was the main jury/judges in trials (unitary state)
● Athens history
- 492-449: leading part of a coalition with Sparta in the wars that defeated
Persians
- 478 ff: Athens became leader of Delian league (perikles)
- Voluntary, but it became a de facto Athenian empire
- Athens controlled the navy
- The junior partners paid tribute to the Athens → became wealthy
- 310-303: Peloponnesian War: Plague and defeat —> Sparta wins
- 404/3: Thirty Tyrants terrorize Athens led by Critias (a student of Socrates,
and the people of Athens want payback when the tyrants are chased out) →
convicted to death after the return of democracy
- 338: Athens defeated by Philip 1

● In a democracy the shop-owner = the people → so, the unruly sailors are ambitious
politicians (generally drawn from upper class politicians)
● At least ten Platonic criticism of popular democracy
1. Democracy → dissensus
2. Self-rule generates overconfidence
3. Most ambitious would-be-rules lack expertise
4. And deny the very existence of political expertise
5. They treated or kill anybody who claims intellectual superiority
6. The desire of ambitious to rule → murderous conflict
7. The elites incite (oligarchic) revolutions and steal property
8. With demagogues in control there is much rudderless pleasure
9. The people are susceptible to flattery and demagogues (go for the person who
promises the most)
10. The masses call demagogues skilled

, ● Some evaluative comments:

- Disorder and disunity (1, 5-8)
- Reign of false (2-4, 9-10)
- In Plato: the truth/truth is harmonious

● Plato's critique of popular democracy relies on empirical facts and predictions about
how direct democracy behaves
- He explains these psychological commitments in Republic
- He explains these political consequences in rest of Republic and can rely on
his readers knowledge of Athenian history
● He relies on normative (value judgments) commitments
- Order and unity
- Political desireability of truthful politics
● = experts should rule

Four theoretical problems for Epistemocay
1. On what (objective) grounds is somebody thought qualified to lead

, - What skills/competence/knowledge is required?
- Much of the Republic devoted to explaining the education of
philosopher-kings
2. Who gets to decide and who monitors the admission
- In the Republic the experts self-select → this requires a strong public ethos
and ability to select and breed for competence
3. Even if 1-2 can be met, why think the ruling experts will be accepted by the rest?
4. Will the experts rule fairly?

Aristotle 382-322 B.C

His thinking:
Associate elections with
oligarchies/aristocracies (who have limited
franchises based on property/wealth)

Nobody is better than anybody else, and
everyone has the equal right to participate →
when a state grows bigger it is impractical
→ lottery is the fairest way to go!

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller PoliticalScienceUvA. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for CA$15.88. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

75323 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling

Summary

History of Political Thought: Summary of lectures and assigned readings of (hopt)

Document information

Subjects

Written for

Seller

Reviews received

Content preview